Lee talks Alabama defense | Ole Miss Sports

Ole Miss offensive coordinator David Lee spent seven years in the NFL at two different stops, first with Dallas, later with Miami.

Rarely does an interview session pass without a pro football reference.

That’s not a bad thing, necessarily. There are quality athletes in the next league up.In talking about Alabama Tuesday afternoon, Lee sounded like a coach getting ready to face an NFL defense, like Saturday’s divisional matchup is one for the AFC East, not the SEC West.

“Gil Brandt (NFL draft analyst) had something early in the summer about his top 100 players. I think Alabama had six of them in the top 100 to get drafted on defense. We’re definitely going to get our oil checked this weekend, that’s for sure. They’re so physical, they’re so good. Coach (Nick) Saban’s done a great job.”

“They 2-gap the way the New England Patriots do. They’ll get off blocks and control their gap. They’re going to let those linebackers run and make tackles. On third downs, you look at our third-and-7 to -10 cut up, we’re going to get seven or eight different coverages.”

Lee went on to express how physical the Alabama cornerbacks are, cornerbacks, who love to tackle, he said.

Corners are usually finesse players who make their contributions with speed and timing.Coaches don’t typically highlight to media the weak links in their upcoming opponents, but it’s hard to see the weak link against Alabama, which ranks No. 1 nationally against the run, No. 3 against the pass.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see more shotgun than usual from Ole Miss. It’s a formation in which Randall Mackey, making his first SEC start, is very comfortable. Plus, the Tide is giving up less than 40 rushing yards a game. People aren’t lining up with fullbacks and powering down the field.

After Tuesday’s practice Lee talked about two weeks to prepare as a possible disadvantage and suggested he would cut some things back.

“We’ve had two weeks. We’ve had plenty of time to look at them and study them. I’m concerned at this point do we have a little bit too much, because when you get two weeks sometimes it ends up biting you in the rear end, because you do have too much time to look at them.”